Conveyor track members are often carried by trucks for facilitating the delivery of their cargo, particularly in the case where the cargo includes a large number of small members such as boxes. By means of these conveyor track members, the boxes may be placed one by one onto the conveyor tracks, which carry many rollers, so that the cargo boxes roll down the conveyor tracks to the ground outside of the truck, or even through a door into the storage room of the receiving facility. As one example of such a device, the Truck-a-Veyor conveyor system is offered for sale by Conveyit Inc. of La Canada, California, and is purportedly covered and described by U.S. Pat. No. 3,951,279.
The prior art conveyor systems, while useful, are rather bulky and cumbersome. For example, the above-described prior art conveyor system is suggested by the manufacturer to be carried underneath the bed of the truck, which, of course, requires special equipment and effort to initially attach the heavy device.
As another common problem in the transportation of cargo, when a truck or other cargo hold is only partially filled with cargo, it is frequently desirable to install a temporary bulkhead across a width of the storage compartment, to restrict the available space for the cargo so that it will not shift and slide as the truck or other vehicle maoves. Normal bulkheads are quite cumbersome, and it would be desirable to eliminate them or at least reduce their weight as much as possible.
In accordance with this invention, a cargo conveyor system for loading and unloading is provided in which the conveyor system is light, and requires no special equipment for installation and operation. At the same time, the conveyor device may be used as an adjustably positionable bulkhead in a cargo compartment, being easily set up into its bulkhead configuration, and then easily broken down to form a simple conveyor device which can be operated by one man. Thus the truck driver can easily do his own loading or unloading, without the need for special equipment, and with a net saving of weight, expense and space, since the device of this invention takes the place of conventional cargo conveyor apparatus as well as conventional bulkheads.